State Your Case: Jack Kemp

Eli Manning is in his second year of eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a bid to join his brother Peyton in Canton.

But is the Hall of Fame considering the right New York quarterback?

Manning won two championships with the New York Giants. So did Jack Kemp in the 1960s with the Buffalo Bills. Manning was the MVP of both championship games. So was Kemp. Manning took his team to two championship games. Kemp took his to five.

Kemp was the league MVP in 1965. Manning was never a league MVP. Kemp went to seven Pro Bowls. Manning went to four. Kemp was a first team all-pro twice and a second-teamer once. Manning never made either first- or second-team all-pro. Kemp won 63 percent of his career starts, Manning won 50 percent of his.

The difference is Manning played in the NFL, Kemp the AFL.

Kemp was one of only 20 players to compete in all 10 of the AFL seasons. He retired after the 1969 season as the AFL’s all-time leading passer. There are four AFL quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame – and none of them is named Kemp. He has been eligible for 52 years now but his candidacy has never been discussed by the Hall of Fame selection committee. He has never even been a semifinalist.

Kemp has one other notable entry missing from Manning’s resume – he once ran for president of the United States…

But let’s get back to the football.

Kemp came out of tiny Occidental College as a 17^th round pick by Detroit in 1957 but failed to make the Lions. He hooked on with Pittsburgh and threw 18 passes for the Steelers as a rookie. Kemp spent time in 1958 on the taxi squads of both the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants, then played briefly in the Canadian Football League in 1959.

His career came off life support in 1960 with the arrival of the American Football League. He signed with his hometown Los Angeles Chargers and became one of the first passers in pro football history to throw for 3,000 yards that season, taking his team to the AFL championship game. He rushed for an AFL-runnerup eight touchdowns and was selected both to the Pro Bowl and first-team all-pro.

The team moved to San Diego in 1961 and Kemp passed for 15 touchdowns and rushed for six more scores to again take the Chargers to the AFL title game. He picked up his second Pro Bowl invitation along the way. Kemp broke a finger in the second game of the 1962 season and coach Sid Gillman tried to stash him on waivers. But the Buffalo Bills claimed Kemp for the $100 waiver fee and were willing to let his finger heal.

Kemp wound up starting the final three games of the season for the Bills, winning two of them. He returned to the Pro Bowl in 1963 – his first of four consecutive appearances – when he passed for 20 touchdowns and rushed for another AFL-runnerup eight scores. Kemp then took the Bills to three consecutive championship games from 1964-66. The Bills won the first two but fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1966, missing out on the chance to play in the first Super Bowl.

Kemp missed three starts in 1967 and the Bills fell to 3-8. He then suffered a season-ending knee injury in training camp in 1968 but returned in 1969 for a final season and a final Pro Bowl selection. Kemp didn’t rush for a touchdown that year but upon retirement, his 40 career rushing TDs ranked second in pro football history to the 44 of Otto Graham.

Kemp always had that political gene. He founded the AFL Players Association in 1964 and served as its president from 1965-70. His career moved quickly from football to politics, having been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1971. He served 19 years in that capacity, which included an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1988. He lost out on the Republican ticket to George H. Bush.

But Bush selected Kemp as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1989 and he would later serve as Sen. Robert Dole’s running mate in a 1996 presidential bid.

Kemp passed away of cancer in 2009 at 73 years of age. It would be easy to forget about his football career given the length and profile of his career in the federal government. But that would be a mistake. He’s a New York quarterback who deserves to be discussed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.